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00:00Hey, how's it going guys, this is Dave2D and I want to do an update video on the Razer
00:12Blade Stealth.
00:13So this is the original Razer Blade Stealth, came out around 8 or 9 months ago, fantastic
00:17device, it's actually one of my top picks for Ultrabooks in 2016.
00:21And this is the new one, it's updated with Kaby Lake from Intel, it's got 16 gigs of
00:26RAM, or you can get up to 16 gigs of RAM, that's what this one's rocking.
00:29And the third thing is it's got an improved battery.
00:31The exterior hasn't changed at all, it's really prone to fingerprints, and it's also prone
00:36to nicks.
00:37I actually put a skin on this one, it's been used by a lot of different people over the
00:40past 8 or 9 months, but when you have a skin, it just protects it.
00:43If you care about the finish of these laptops, I highly recommend getting a skin on it.
00:47These are from dbrand, they have ones that even cover the logo if you want to get rid
00:50of it.
00:51Now, the build quality is still awesome.
00:53If you watched my first video, you can kinda see the details as to why I like it so much,
00:57but the short of it is this.
00:58These laptops are built really well.
01:00I would consider them equal to something like the XPS line from Dell, or the MacBooks from
01:05Apple.
01:06These are just really, really well built.
01:07The display options are unchanged, and so are all the external features, so the speakers,
01:12the keyboard, the trackpad, the ports.
01:14If you want to learn more about those, you can check the original review.
01:17On the inside, one of the things that they haven't changed is the drive, so they're still
01:20using the Samsung PM951 drive.
01:23It's an okay drive, I don't love it, mostly because at the lower capacities, the read
01:27speeds are okay, but the write speeds are really slow, and I don't love that, especially
01:31for a PCIe drive.
01:32I really wish that they'd upgraded to something a little bit faster this time, they haven't.
01:36The 16 gigs of RAM is nice, but keep in mind that you have to configure this at the time
01:40of ordering.
01:41You can't bring it home and upgrade it because the RAM is still soldered on.
01:44The battery's been upgraded, we'll talk about that in more details later, but the big thing
01:48is the Kaby Lake processor.
01:50It's now running an i7-7500U.
01:52The Kaby Lake version is faster, it's not supersonic or anything, but everything just
01:56feels a little bit snappier.
01:57It's not a huge difference, but it is noticeable.
02:00As for the differences in terms of RAM, that is where I feel is the biggest difference.
02:0516 gigs of RAM is really nice.
02:07For me, I use Chrome a lot, and if you have a lot of tabs open, there is a difference
02:10between an 8 and a 16 gig model, and also if you're doing video edits, the 16 gigs of
02:15RAM is a much more spacious, viable video editing environment.
02:18And the third thing, I hate to use this term, is future-proofing.
02:21Not that it really exists, but you're gonna get further into the future with 16 gigs of
02:26RAM than 8 gigs of RAM.
02:28The Razer Blade Stealth was never great at playing games to begin with, at least not
02:31until you tethered it with the Razer Core, but if you're gaming on the integrated graphics,
02:35the new HD 620 is around 10%, maybe 15% faster than the older HD 520.
02:41So lighter games like CSGO and Dota 2, you'll be able to play them, you won't get amazing
02:44frame rates, you're not gonna be like MLG or anything, but it is a smoother experience
02:48with the HD 620.
02:49In general though, it's gonna be a noticeable improvement, it's just not a huge improvement.
02:54Thermally, they're pretty similar.
02:56The Kaby Lake is cooler on idle, and a little bit cooler even on load, which is nice, but
03:00they're not that different, and in terms of actual use and comfort, I wouldn't really
03:04notice a difference between the two if I was just using them on my lap without a thermal cam.
03:07The other thing is noise.
03:09Fan noise is about the same between them, but because it has a more efficient chip,
03:12fans kick in less frequently on the Kaby Lake version.
03:15It's the new one, right?
03:16It better be that way.
03:18If you connect the Razer Blade Stealth to the Razer Core, you can get a huge improvement
03:22in gaming performance, depending on the card that you have inside there.
03:25But I tried using the GTX 1080, fantastic card, but there was no real difference between
03:30the Kaby Lake version and the Skylake version.
03:32Both of them played games at extremely good frame rates, but at that point, most of the
03:36work is being done by the GPU, the actual Kaby Lake chipset isn't improving gaming performance
03:41that much.
03:42But one of the really cool things that Kaby Lake does have is hardware encoding and decoding
03:46of some video codecs, in particular, V9 and H.265.
03:51Complicated stuff, but basically, things like Netflix and YouTube, when they push high
03:55quality video to you, your computer has to decode that stuff to be able to display it.
03:59And now that decoding is done on the chip.
04:01So it uses very little CPU power, you're getting less fan noise, and longer battery life.
04:06Now that leads me to my favorite part about the Kaby Lake Stealth, the battery life.
04:11So the old version on the Skylake chip, you're getting around five and a half, six hours
04:14of battery life.
04:15Reasonable, kind of short in the Ultrabook market, but still acceptable considering what
04:20it is.
04:21This version, seven and a half to eight hours.
04:23Partially because of the Kaby Lake chip, it's a little more energy efficient, but it's also
04:26a bigger battery.
04:27So seven and a half, eight hours is really nice, because to me, eight hours is like the
04:31threshold for when you don't have to bring your charger to work or school, because it'll
04:35last you the full day.
04:36And I really like that.
04:37So overall, fantastic device to begin with.
04:41It's even better with the upgrades.
04:42Hope you guys enjoyed this video, thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it.
04:46It's been nice.
04:47See you guys next time.